Ever since the recall election, Californians have been talking a
lot about all of the state’s problems.
We like to complain about the quality of service offered by our
public institutions ““ our public schools, health services and
the Department of Motor Vehicles. Especially the DMV. We like to
complain about gas prices and our dependency on foreign oil. And we
always like to complain about traffic. But when it comes to
actually dealing with these issues, there is a huge disconnect
between what Californians want and what we are willing to pay.
It’s kind of like going to a ball game excited to watch
your favorite players up close and then ending up sitting
disappointed in the nosebleed section because you didn’t want
to pay for decent seats. You may as well have stayed home because
you would have had a better view of the action on TV.
This is the dilemma we Californians have put ourselves into. We
should not be complaining that we are in the cheap seats on all of
these issues when it is our thrifty, anti-spending ways that put us
here in the first place.
We want better schools, yet we elect a governor who cuts the
Vehicle License Fee, plunging us over $4 billion deeper into
deficit. And some of us acted surprised when the May Revision of
his budget included over $2 billion in cuts to K-12 education and
$600 million in cuts to state colleges and universities?
Please.
Lower taxes are great, but revenue doesn’t materialize out
of thin air. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mythical sources of
government waste and inefficiency do not exist. His independent
audit of the state’s finances didn’t come up with any
waste after it completed its first phase. Instead of cutting waste,
the governor is cutting vital programs that perform essential
functions. These tax cuts will probably lead to lower quality
teachers, larger class sizes, higher student fees and lower quality
services.
Taxes aren’t the only place where this disconnect is
taking place. It’s also happening at the pump where
Californians want a clean environment and low gas prices but drive
gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles. Smoggy air is not going to go
away as long as we’re driving inefficient vehicles with high
emissions. Some SUV drivers even think they’re somehow
getting closer to nature by driving their hulking tank-like
vehicles. You can tell who these drivers are by the “Keep
Tahoe Blue” bumper stickers on their cars.
Higher gas prices wouldn’t hurt as much if we were driving
more fuel-efficient cars. This is why Japanese cars became so
popular in the 1970s, during the oil shocks. But we can’t
have it both ways ““ we’re not going to be safe from
smoggy air or high gas prices as long as we keep chugging along in
our behemoth cars.
One of the biggest problems Californians love to complain about,
but aren’t willing to address, is traffic. It’s not
just Los Angeles anymore. Large cities across the state, like San
Jose and San Diego, are now experiencing similar traffic woes.
While Californians may despise traffic, we are still not willing to
pony up the cash to build the necessary transportation
infrastructure to deal with the amount of population growth and
sprawl our cities are experiencing.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Just take Los Angeles
as an example. In downtown Los Angeles, traffic isn’t as big
of a problem because there are a lot of freeways and other transit
infrastructures. The real problems come as you get away from
downtown, where there are single freeways serving entire areas
““ like the 210 in the San Gabriel Valley or the 405 going
from West Los Angeles into the San Fernando Valley.
Public transportation can also play a crucial role in limiting
traffic problems. While the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and light
rail systems have helped in Northern California, they still
aren’t nearly as extensive as the systems in urban areas on
the East Coast or in Europe. Other areas in California have proven
to be almost allergic to public transportation. This allergy has
proven costly as some areas seem to have traffic jams from sunrise
to after dark.
Californians need to realize they can’t have it both ways.
We can’t have low taxes, a healthy education system and a
balanced budget. We can’t drive gas-guzzling SUVs and solve
our oil dependency or environmental problems.
We can’t solve our traffic woes without forking out the
money to pay for the necessary transit systems. Politicians have to
stop promising Californians they can have it both ways, too. The
reality is we need to start realizing there are tough trade-offs
that exist in these situations. We have to learn to live with the
path that we choose for ourselves and stop expecting to have
everything go our way.
Bitondo is a third-year political science and history
student. E-mail him at mbitondo@media.ucla.edu. Send general
comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.